A wide variety of mating electrical connectors employ pairs of interengaging pin and socket terminals for interconnecting a plurality of circuits or wires through the mated connectors. The pin and socket terminals often are called male and female terminals, respectively.
The terminals are mounted in a plurality of terminal-receiving passageways in a dielectric housing of the electrical connector. The terminals generally are elongated and are inserted into the passageways along the longitudinal axes of the terminals. Some form of "interengaging" latches normally are provided to hold the terminals in the passageways against withdrawal therefrom.
Various types of terminal latching systems have consistently presented various problems. For instance, the terminals often are provided with outwardly projecting, cantilevered flexible latch arms which snap behind shoulders within the terminal-receiving passageways of the connector housing. The cantilevered latch arms have a tendency to bend, break and/or snag on other parts. For instance, the latch arms may be bent or collapsed on a reel of interconnected terminals during shipping, prior to assembling the terminals within the connector. In addition, in order to have any significant latching capabilities, the latch arms must be of a sufficient width which often limits current-carrying capacity of the terminals and, in turn, may cause over-heating.
In order to avoid those problems associated with such flexible latch arms on the terminals, latch arms have been provided on the connector housing itself. In such an arrangement, the housing normally is molded of plastic material, and the latch arms are molded integrally therewith and extend inwardly into the terminal-receiving passageways from interior housing walls. These latch arms on the housing have limited strength and durability. They also present problems during manufacture, because the molded plastic material must flow down the entire length of the arms. The arms also take up space within the connector housing and the terminal-receiving cavities thereof and therefore may make it difficult to provide adequate insulation between adjacent terminals.
This invention is directed to solving the above problems by providing a simple and reliable latching system for terminals in an electrical connector of the character described.